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3. Vise Suggestions, Page 3

If they don't let you try it, don't but it there.
If they do let you tie on it, buy it there. Don't do a big box thinking you'll save a few bucks.


Bruce, I don't sell fishing gear, which is probably why I have all of those vises. I will give it away or trade it for other fishing stuff, but only if that person will use it.
So, remind me before our next get together and I'll trade it for a dozen size 20 Baetis emergers.
I will teach Tony and John (and Natalie-who already ties with me) on the same Thompson that I taught myself to tie with.


Umm...
Can you say Jhonny Peralta?

It's not a good idea to throw stones... Quite a game tonight.

Big Popi van spit hooks all he wants out of my Regal ! Can't run, but he sure can hit!

:) Can't slip anything by you sir! Can I? :)

This poor thread has gone schizo...Vices/post season baseball?

Back to vices (Tori Hunter and I are nursing bruised ribs this morning)...I agree with Tony. You need to operate the darn thing before you take it home. Some of the manufactures have some vids etc on their sites that show some of the features of their product, but you have to put your hands on them.

There aren't a ton of moving parts on the old Thompson or the Regal or HMH, but, if there is something on the new vice that won't work for you, you need to know. There is a learning curve with anything new, but a test drive is a must...A good fly shop owner will put you in the driver's seat and even show you how the vice works...

Maybe attend a tying show in your area and walk around and see what vice is getting used the most. Watch a tyer tying with it. Ask them about it...I bet there's a ton of good info there...Ask someone who ties for a living. The only problem with the pros is they are cranking them out and speed and ease of use are important to them...Maybe not as much of a big deal to the personal tyer filling his own boxes.

Everybody has their own style...That's why there's more than one vice. After I retired I was asked to tie for a shop...I know I'm not that guy. I am so slow it is a wonder I don't have to buy flies. :) Sip of beer, look over at the Wings game, wrap a bit, get distracted by almost anything...Wrap a little more...Argue with Eric about whether one should split that wing buy snipping the fibers away with scissors, or splitting them with the thread...I truely enjoy tying and don't want to make it a chore. Buy a good vice that facilitates your style...The better ones will last a very long time.

Spence

How about the tying style where a tier places the small hook in his fingers, and ties? I watched Andre' Puyans do just that just before he passed away.

Somebody should've given that poor Proper guy a pair of scissors ;)

I betcha that hurts. I'd rather place the hook in a vise.

Can always count on you for a chuckle, Bruce. Ok Spence - which one of you is the proponent of butchering a wing like that?:) I am thinking of that execution scene in Braveheart. "Do you confess!!!" LOL

Kurt...Eric and I are just recounting a private, somewhat drunken, debate we had after a stellar evening of fishing on Penn's Creek, giddy that we had survived a serious storm, and were warm and safe in our room above the Feathered Hook fly shop and the beer supply was still strong.

The common "threads" of the evening were, a monster Henny hatch, willing Browns of some size, storm, beer, making it to a nice place for dinner where we could playfully flirt with the waitress, more beer, being too geeked to sleep and Eric wanting to tie in the middle of the night, Spence being too toasted to tie, and a discussion of the late, great, Datus Proper and his "Perfect Dun"...:)

The argument had something to do with the more hackle fibers you are able to pull parallel to the hook shank and above, the more you have to help float the boat...I was trying to demonstrate Mr Proper's technique, way too sauced to do it, and Datus, any justice...Eric had scissors in his hand and was too impatient to wait for the drunken Dutchman to work/slur through his argument...Well...It wasn't pretty and snip and the short cut was taken...My response was to rise from my chair and head to the cooler and get the kid and me a couple more cold ones...Problem solved! :)

If anyone feels that they have two cents to contribute to this discussion, they must of first have read, "What the Trout Said, About the Design of Trout Flies and Other Mysteries", it wouldn't hurt to have a working knowledge of Vinny Marinaro's, "A Modern Dry-Fly Code", and on page 277 of, "The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference to Techniques and Dressing Styles" tried to tie a "Gathered-hackle Arc Wing"...It doesn't hurt to have a few leftover Molson's Spence had brought with him from Detroit, and some Yuengling's Tony dumped on you before he headed home. :)

Spence

:) LOL - Yeah, I caught the Proper reference. Thought it would be more fun to accuse you of trimming out half the woodduck on a Catskill pattern after tying it in.:) Besides, we don't want those less knowledgeable of the esoteric to be misled. The less ugly Hendricksons out there the better IMO. LOL

BTW - Datus would have loved the Hackle Stacker!
BTW2 - Eric's solution for the Proper Difficulty sounds akin to Lawson's for the Marinaro Challlenge. Jeez, sounds like a couple of Ludlum novels...:)

The "Proper Identity" or maybe the "Proper Betrayal" is more accurate of my Philistine behavior.

Kurt, even I wouldn't cut the wood duck wing on a traditional Catskill Red Quill. I have to draw the line somewhere.

You are one funny fellow there Eric the Humorous...I'm laughing out loud, as they say.

Kurt...To be honest, after all the cold ones, I was a little concerned for my safety with Eric holding a sharp instrument in his hand and waving it around in the air as he tried to make his points...I wasn't so concerned for my scalp since there's little hair left there, but who knows...We had only just met, having hooked up on Troutnut-Match.com. :) Bruce had a better name for it, but I can't remember it.

All seven of us had met via this crazy site...Who would of thought...For all I knew, I could of been getting set up. Who knows if those Boys in PA weren't still holding a grudge for Chauncey moving from there to the North Branch of the Au Sable. It may have been the big get even! ;)

The real fun was the next hung-over morning when I awoke to find the manager of the place (I think he's in the witness protection program) frying up some bacon for this vego...He was swinging a knife around in the air as well and my head was throbbing...We were having a hard time communicating, I think he's from New Jersey, but he finally handed me a plateful of fried eggs and toast and I realized they meant me no harm...

Were the eggs cooked in the bacon grease? Inquiring minds want to know...Or as my stepfather says, "What you don't know won't hurt you!" :) That's why, when I'm in a favorite diner, I like the cooking area, "out-of-sight-out-of-mind". ;)

Truth be known, Kurt...I had such a great time with "Those Pennsylvania Boys" last April, I'm still running on the fumes.

Oh yeah...I like my Dyna-King...I appologise to whomever started this thread. What was the topic again? Oh vices...Mine is the love of beer.